Tennessee inside linebackers coach William Inge met with the media on Tuesday morning just four days before the Vols open up their 2024 season against Chattanooga at Neyland Stadium.
Inge discussed the versatility of the inside linebackers in the room, certain roles for certain players and much more. Here’s everything Inge said during his final presser before the season opener.
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On what he’s learned about his group the last 30 days
“Probably the biggest thing we learned about our group is how resilient a group we have, but also I would also say the depth that we have, seeing some of the guys put in a lot of work, and we can see their intensity through repetition really start to come out and come to play to where they’re learning everything systematically. They’re applying everything that we want them to be able to do fundamentally and they’re putting themselves in position where they’re saying, coach, I can be trusted. You can put me in a football game.”
On how he’s seen the leadership in the room change
“It’s been really good being able to see the evolution of leadership happening within our room and within our football team as a whole. When you can see the players holding each other accountable, when you can see the players wanting to be held accountable and you can see the players doing extra things and extra small little things that lets you know that the player led mentality is beginning to kick in and continuing to kick in. So we’ve definitely been pleased thus far with a lot of the mentality and the thinking and the actions that the players have been coming up with thus far in and they’ve really done a great job of really taking our lead and doing what we’re asking them to do.”
On what he anticipates from Keenan Pili on the field
“We anticipate someone that’s going to be very active, very aggressive, and someone that’s going to be running sideline-to-sideline. Someone who will be making all kind of plays and everyone will know where No. 11 is on the football field. That’s kind of our vision that we want to create in him. And the one thing that allows us to be able to do that is that’s what he’s shown thus far and he’s got the capabilities of being able to do that. And it’s our responsibility to push him to where he can be one of the best linebackers in the country and he can be that and do that for sure.”
On how he knows when his group has had enough work to be a good tackling team
“That’s one question. You really never know. You don’t know that until you’re really actually in the battlefield doing it. The one thing that we do is we do practice our tackling often and all the time. But sometimes, that’s the one question where as a coach you’re sitting back in the corner like, oh my gosh, please lets make sure this never shows his face. But from a teaching standpoint, you want make sure that you always teach tackling to the point of whenever we’re in some kind of padded day, there’s gonna be some tackling all the time to make sure you can get your players in a position where their footwork and body position is where it needs to be, so we can make those plays. But you really don’t know until you’re in the battlefield and it’s there.”
On if he feels like they tackled well in the scrimmages
“Yeah. From a scrimmage standpoint, yes. And one thing that we try to do is to make sure that we always as well take care of our football team. And that’s what we’ve really seen. I think a lot of growth and maturity happen on our football team. Everybody’s taken care of each other, and when you have a chance to make your tackles it’s literally the one shot, one kill mentality to where you’re making your tackle, you’re doing what you’re supposed to do, and you’re making the play, you’re supposed to make from your point of attack.”
On how much weight he puts on past game reps compared to what he’s seen in practice
“It is a little bit of both. And some of it is when you think about just everyone in our room there’s not a lot of individuals who are kind quote unquote returning that have a lot of game footage. So I have to go off of what I’ve seen and the ability to put them under some adverse conditions in practice and to see how they thrive in those moments. And that literally gives us a lot of trust in them. And also I want to let them know, ‘Hey, I trust you and you’re gonna go into the battle field, you’re gonna do well.’ It is our job as coaches also to be able to breathe confidence into them to where there’s no uncertainties from their standpoint when they hit the field also.”
On the positional skillset, if Jeremiah Telander and Kalib Perry can play both spots
“Yes. And that’s something that we want now, and when you think about the body types, there’s some different things that Telander can do and versus a Kalib Perry, when you just look at the two body types, but we think they can go, both go in and apply the jobs and do the things that they’re supposed to do. And one thing that we always want to do is to let our players know, even from a recruiting standpoint, you’re gonna be recruited to be a dual player. We never want to back you into a corner and say you only can do one thing because if you want to make this your occupation the more things you can do, the more value you’re gonna have to your football team.”
On the biggest jump he’s seen from Arion Carter
“I think the biggest jump that I’ve just seen overall from Arion Carter is just his level of preparation. You’ll see he’s someone where he will be the first person in the building and then during camp, he stayed here everyday. He was in the film when we left, he was in the film room sending text messages about things that were going on during that particular day or things that could have been going on or happening for the next day. To see his level of preparation and to see the things that he’s doing for the group and for the team and for the unit on defense, that’s what you want to see from a coach. So seeing his growth is probably one of the better things that I’ve been able to see. When you see him run it shows up immediately that he’s someone who can run fast and hit hard and that’s what we’d love to see.”
On how many linebackers he feels comfortable playing
“We feel pretty good about our depth overall. For us, if you understand the system, you make the plays you’re supposed to make at the point of attack and you know how to drive our defense, you’ll have the opportunity to play. And what I would love to be able to do is to make sure we play five or six players. And that’s historically what I’ve been able to do, is to make sure that from a preparation standpoint, that number of guys have been prepared and that number of guys have played. And they all have a specific role. It may be someone comes in when it’s third down and long, someone comes in when it’s third down and short, someone comes in when it’s goal line or short yardage. But being able to give those guys what you would say hope. Because if you know that you’re gonna be going into the football game, how much more are you gonna be ready when it comes to your level of preparation? So when you do that for them, they’re gonna give it back to you in return. So I would love to be able to make sure from a group standpoint that we play, if you have a uniform on and you’re ready to play, you’re gonna have a chance to play.”
On how freshman linebacker Edwin Spillman has continued to progress during camp
“Edwin is definitely progressing very well. He’s someone, when you talk about being able to stuff and stop the run, his body type fits exactly just that. He does not get moved when he’s in there fitting. As a player who’s learning and growing, it’s great to see the things that he does on special teams. So he is someone, he has a great role in our room and it’s awesome to see him learning every day. It is actually special to see him coming on with his smile and he’s learning. And when you have Keenan Pili and Arion Carter putting you up under their wing, you could only go up. So it’s great seeing him continue to excel.”
On Keenan Pili’s drive and readiness to play in a game after being injured last season
“For him, he is kind of mature beyond his age and time, but we all know he’s a little more mature than everyone else. So it’s kind of an oxymoron in the room, but to see his mindset, he knows he’s just ready to go play. The good thing about this is he’s had the opportunity and exposure to be around a lot of good people, a lot of good coaches, a lot of good players. So he knows how to have himself ready and prepared to do his job on gameday. I just can’t wait to see him be able to go and apply it. That’s our responsibility as coaches to see him be able to go do that. So he’s ready. His mindset is right and he knows he’s doing everything he can to help the rest of the guys around him, to be even better.”
On Tennessee’s depth chart that was released on Monday and the thought process behind it featuring so many “ORs”
“Well, a lot of it is when you have competition at those respective positions, that’s kind of how you may feel as a coach. just for example, in the linebacker room, you can pick any two players and they’re gonna be able to go apply their job and do what they’re supposed to do as starters. And that’s kind of how we feel as a staff. So I guess when you see someone who may be a an ‘or’ scenario, we feel pretty good about the next person being able to come in and being able to compete at a high level to help us compete for a championship.”
On Arion Carter’s understanding of the film he’s watching and he’s seen him grow in that way
“That’s where he and I have gotten closer being from my perspective, being able to help show him what he’s looking at while he’s looking at film, while he’s watching film. So that’s where he’s really had the chance to really sharpen his laser. Just the conversations that he and I have, we’re working in the film room and that’s a little bit where he’s taken a lot of the big jumps just because now he’s understanding how to look at the film, what he’s looking at, what he’s looking for, what’s the situation that’s going on and presenting himself in the field. So that’s where he’s really kind of matured himself here over the last seven months.”
On what the coaching staff is emphasizing this week
“I think some of the things we talked about earlier, when you come into week one, the biggest thing you have to do is make sure you keep a lot of the focus on your football team because from a fundamental standpoint, that’s where the blocking and tackling always kind of shows up. So we’ve kind of really put a lot of the emphasis on us being able to make our plays at the point of attack. The one thing that we see that is fairly similar, is you look at our offensive structure and scheme here at Tennessee and their (UTC) offensive structure and scheme, it’s all very, very similar. So we’ve been able to get a multitude of kind of practicing when we’re going against our offense. That’s been something that’s been able to help us.”
On Chattanooga’s offense
“We know they have a very good, mature quarterback who’s gonna lead. We know they have some new players at some of the big skill positions like at tight end, he’s a returning guy. The running backs are gonna be fairly new, so you don’t know what you’re gonna get there. And from a receiver standpoint, we know there’s some guys that the quarterbacks love to throw to. So we have to make sure that we’re on our game and we apply all of our fundamentals. Coming into game one, the thing we’re really focusing on is make sure we don’t lose sight of us.”
